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The seven Golden Spheres had completed their sixteenth Gate jump and arrived in a galaxy that no longer belonged to the Local Group. Naviagation confirmed they were 210 Million Light years from the Milky Way galaxy. Captain Bebody got up from his seat.The Communications officer opened the command line to all ships..”Tactical., anything on the board?” “No energy pattern suggesting artificial energies for 5 light years, other than the gate. Graviton analysis found no natural artificial bumps.” The Seenian robot at Science said. “Five G type stars with planetary systems within 14 light years. Two of them have candidates in the Goldilocks zone. Particle trace analysis suggests there is traffic from and too the gate pointing in the general directon of a star 9.9 light years from here. Dispersion pattern indicates the last particle producing engine that went this way did so about a year ago.” The Golden at communications was directly related to Sobody himself, but instead living the luxurious life of a Merchant prince, he had joined the Union Navy and was considered a first rate officer who took his profession very serious. For a Golden he was quite young and only 300 years old.”There is distant Tachyon and TLFAX chatter, but very weak. It will take the Computronic a day to isolate one or two signals for interpretation.” The XO was a Golden Guard and as it was common for his kind only spoke for duty reasons, never lost a single word in private conversation.”Captain Sir,we are the first official Union ship that came this far. The Galaxy only bears a number in the catalogs. According to Fleet regulations, you have the right to name it.Sir.” The OPS Officer another Golden turned.”Others name stars an planets, nebula and such. You naming a Galaxy is certainly a Union first.” Bebody rubbed the wrinkled skin of his head.”Sobody is going to kill me if I call it Sobody's Galaxy. I am certainly not going to call it after me...” Everyone looked at him now. “How does Golden Disc sound? Has something of us in it and I don't have to hide behind my chair if I deliver the report.” Everyone agreed that it would be a good name. To the OPS officer he said. “Put it on the books and launch the Walker Drone.” Moments later a sophisticated robotic drone was launched with all data they had collected so far and travel back all the way to Fleet command. They had done so after every jump. He then said. “Send a Spectre to that binary starsystem over there.” He pointed at the closest star in relation to their position. It looks there are good candidates for scooping.” The small fleet had still enough fuel for a few thousand light years, but he always liked to have full tanks and a place where the engines could be serviced. The Comm officer said.”Captain Robady is asking if the Eightday dinner is being held as planned.” Every Eightday of the Union Week the Captains of the seven ships came together for a formal dinner but for informal reasons. This however was the first time they had jumped on an Eightday. “It is still five hours till dinner. If nothing comes up, sure we will, but only if he brings a bottle of that liquour he got from the Old Highlander.” The message was relayed. The crew was busy with all the things that needed to be done after a jump. He glacnced once more at the threat board himself and decided to go to his ready room for the logbook entry. So much had changed for the Golden and for him in the last thirty five year He used to be a Fuel and ship supply merchant, and even for Golden standards he was a rich man. Sobody the first Merchant was advocating a change, a very drastic change that would change the |Golden society forever. Sodoby worked harder than any First Merchant ever before, but he did not order it. The First Merchant had absolute power, as anyone born under the diamond, yet for the last 1500 years he wanted his Golden to have a say. It was not an easy sell, some even considered the First Golden to be sick or insane, but 1500 year were a long time, even for the Golden and slowly but surely his message and idea caught on. Sobody wanted to abandon the neutrality the Golden were synonymous for and make the Golden society part of another society. In terms of Galactic history that other society was young, not even 3000 years old, yet it was different from any other. No evidence of the unusual character of this other society was more telling than the fact that the Narth had joined with it. Compared to the Narth the Golden were nothing but children. It was not the first such change. Driven from their home and exiled by their own kind. So long ago on a world called Koken they developed to sentience, discovered fire and created a successful technical quite advanced civilization. Their species developed five races and each on a continent of the same world. There were the Ker, the Mar, the Mac, the Blue and the Golden. Different only in size an shade of skin. Together they were the Koken people, which was the word for five in the old language. Then almost two million years ago, when the Koken people were about to ascent, first contact was made. The UNI came and visited the Ker, giving them access and knowledge and the gift of psionics. The Uni declared the Ker to be their successors. The details of what then happened was lost to time and only legends and myth remained. Bebody only knew that the Ker exiled the Blue and the Golden. Whoever did not want to leave was killed. The Blue left the Galaxy on a long journey to Andromeda. The Golden became homeless drifters in a large hollow asteroid. And out of the Ker, the Mar and the Mac a new race emerged, the Kermac. At some point they met a species that eventually became the Golden Guard and the Golden became a race of planet less merchants. Carefully maintaining to be neutral, never to get involved in any conflict. The Golden Guard, highly advanced shared their technology and protected the Golden. They also provided the necessary planetary resources a civilization needed to grow. Only sporadic records survived, but a traveling Alien gave them the keys to a transpatial gate network, allowing the Golden to visit other Galaxies of the Local Group. No one knew who built that network but the Golden used it to spread out and establish trading places, so called Golden Bazaars all over this group of galaxies. Some went so far it took years of travel, despite the gates to reach them. Back in their own Galaxy an event he knew next to nothing about caused the Kermac to abandon Koken and move to a new world they called Kermac Prime. Over the age the Kermac became a mighty civilization, controlling and enslaving many others with their psionic powers. Calling their sphere of influence the Galactic Council. The Kermac as powerful as they were could not overcome the other big civilizations and since the Golden carefully avoided any direct contact, the Kermac could not eradicate and destroy the Golden. A new young civilization suddenly rose to prominence, Earth entered the Galactic stag, not meek like all other newcomers did, but with a thunder clap. Exterminating the menacing Xunx in one single stroke. The scheming Freons and their brethren the Ferons were next to perish after they tried to deny Earth's rightful place among the galactic civilizations. The Sarans suddenly ended their centuries old civil war against their former colonies and together with Earth and the Pan Sarans they united their civilizatons into a new society.It was not an Empire, not a kingdom but something different, they called it the United Stars of the Galaxy. To the suprise of many, the Non human Ult, once one of the most aggressive species with a sizeable empire joined up. It had not stopped since,civilizations and species made the decision to join. Not a single member of the United Stars had been conquered or forced to join. After the Big War, the United Stars accomplished a feat, no one even dreamed of. They built a bridge to Andromeda. As the first society of Andromeda joined, they changed the name to United Stars of the Galaxies, but already then, a different name was used and this mega society was simply called the Union. Bebody was certain that the Vote to abandon the United Stars title and make Union the only official term was not far off. In Andromeda the Blue were rediscovered and became Union members. The Kermac of course could not accept another society to rise to such prominence and not too long ago, after the Big War, Union and Galactic Council clashed again. As it was clear that the Kermac could no longer stop the Union and were loosing the war, they begged the Blue to intervene and broker peace. The Union expanded to almost double its size after the Klack joined, Not long after that the Attikan Commonwealth , a society controlling almost half of the Large Magellan Cloud joined. While the Union grew , the Kermac star faded. It was around that time, when a spy revealed to Sobody that the Kermac planned to conquer the Golden for the purpose of gaining access to all the technological knowledge of the Golden and to show the galaxy that they where still a power to reckon with. Most of all however out of disdain and hate towards their distant brethren. As formidable as the Golden Guards were, they could not stop the Galactic Council led by the Kermac. Thankfully the Kermac plan was interrupted as their attack on Green Hell escalated into yet another war against the Union. But Sobody knew it would be only a matter of time, they would return to their plan. There were only a few critical voices who still opposed Sobody's plan. The attack of the Mini Terrans on Sobody's Bazaar put everything in fast forward. The Union sent one ship that saved the Bazaar and Sobody decided to become part of that crew, while the Golden Elders travelled to Pluribus to begin the Membership application. The story of Sobody's first journey aboard the USS Tigershark became a legend and a source of Golden pride like nothing ever did before. Sobody was there when Captain Olafson rescued the Nul Prince, liberated the Smelter Moons and was instrumental in the waking of the First Engineer of the Karthanians. All this was only a fraction of adventures their old First Merchant had. Much of it was still highly classified. When Bebody was a young man, he respected the First Merchant because everyone did and it was required. Now he respected the old man because of his deeds. It was the reason he gave control over his business to his wife and son and joined the Academy. His proudest moment of his life was when Admiral McElligott shook his hand and called him Captain. Sobody, so he heard was still with the Tigershark and the Golden were no longer neutral or independent but Union members.. Technically all Golden in the Universe were subjects to the First Merchant and part of the Golden society, but most of the more distant Bazaars had little or no contact with their mother society. Some had simply vanished, had been destroyed or abandoned being merchants and established planetary colonies.. Some had lost all contact and considered lost. Those Bazaars who had remained in contact fully agreed with Sobody's decision. The Union sent out convoys of ships and freighters to welcome these Bazaars and Colonies and nothing the Union did was half hearted. The so called Welcome Wagon mission was a testament of Union might. Golden Spheres now part of the Union Fleet were refurbished into heavy armed long distance explorers and sent to visit every known location of a Golden Bazaar, no matter how far or how long contact was lost. Bebody was part of the Golden Retriever mission and after almost two years of travel they made contact with a Golden Colony where the last contact was recorded over 20,000 years ago. They had little hope that they would find anything. But the orders were clear to follow up on any, even the most vague hint in the Golden Archives. To not make such an enrmous trip for nothing, it was part of the Gate Mapping program and seen as a scientific mission. Eight weeks ago the 600 ship fleet had arrived at the last and most distant known spot where a Golden Bazaar might have been. To their great delight they found a thriving two planet Golden enclave. No longer trading because they said there was no one to trade when they arrived so long ago. Struggling to survive they had lost the technology to travel FTL. The Golden Enclave was euphoric as they arrived and instantly declared to be still Golden and of course abide by the First Merchants decision. Especially if his decision led to such an effort to find the lost Bazaars and Colonies. A portion of the 600 ship fleet immideatly started on the return trip, Installing a GalNet relaychain from gate to gate. At each gate from here to M-0 one of the ships would park on each side of the gate to act as a temporary space station and message post. Since GalNet messages could not be sent through the gates, they would collect messages and then sent a data drone through the gate to the ship on the other side. This process would be repeated until the message reached its destination. While it was not instantaneous, a message could be sent from and to Union space in just one day. Since Union law required that every effort had to be made to connect even the most remote and distant Union member this was only the start. The rest of the ships brought PDDs, Med Pods, Copies of the entire Content of the library of the Union, Crates filled with hard copies of the Union Constitution, CITI implanters, HPI test specialists and teachers. A wing of Wulfcrafts complete with Flight instructors and thousands of tons of golden food specialities. During all this they learned that ten of the Golden Spheres that arrived here so long ago, did not remain but decided to jump one more time. Bebody took seven ships to investigate, as his core mission was to make contact with the lost Golden. This gate was of a different kind and did not respond to the Gate codes of the Golden. It was substantially bigger and clearly made by a different civilization. After they had jumped it became apparent why it was different, they had jumped further and were no longer in the so called Local Group. Just as he put his thoughts to the paper of the log book, alarm was raised. “Alien Vessel approaching, tremendous size. TL 8 at least.” The alien ship was almost 18,000 meters in diameter. About a thousand meters thick at it's center, tapering out to less than 100 meters at the rirm and had the overall shape of a dinner plate, It was under Para Dim like shields and begun immideatly with first contact procedures. The computronics of the USS Woldidor answering by doing the same thing. In less than thirty minutes, communications reported.”Sufficient data analyzed for two way conversation, Captain. Transmission data interpreted foraudio and visuals. The unknowns are hailing us,Sir.” He tugged on his sleeves and said.”First Contact background up?” “Yes Sir.” The Union had the science of first contact down to an exact science. Captain Bebody would appear on the screens of the aliens standing before a featureless light blue background. It was done for many reasons. One was to keep the information overload to a minimum. Another was of course to not put all cards on the table. If the others expected a Golden they would see only a Golden and had no chance to come to any conclusions about bridge layout. Golden Spheres had changed little on the outside, but the USS WOLIDOR was refurbished with the finest Union Tech, including 4 rapid transmit Kilo Load Translocators, six large Hellbore TL , four Nul Froth Casters and a brand Loki IX eight tube rotary launcher. Each of the nine Golden Spheres also carried 4 Kahri Wolfs. They came in peace but if they had to fight, they weren't defenseless. “Put me on then.” The screen remained dark, but a booming voice barked in a commanding unfriendly manner.”We are the Tomradi. You will acknowledge our superiority. We are the new Lords of the Universe. Your primitive ships are known to us. You will now lower all your shield so we may take all your information and data. We seek and our quest must not be denied.” Bebody rolled his eyes. There had to be Kermac like everywhere so it appeared. He gave his XO a sign to sound Battlestations, but keep weapons covered for the moment. “I am Captain Bebody of the Union Star Ship Wolidor. We are on a peaceful quest to seek lost members of our civilization. I am willing to discuss and initiate information exchange to facilitate better understanding. Should you claim this space as yours, we will return from where we came. Be warned we are prepared to defend ourselves against any hostile action directed against us. We prefer dialog over violence. Make no mistake to see this as consession to your demands.” “All space is Tomradi space. Retreat is not permitted. Only the fact that you may carry data we seek has prevented your discussion. Now witness Tomradi power!” Tactical reported.” Alien has released a missile object, smilar to Loki III. Target is the USS ZONDER.” Before Bebody could respond the report came.”Hostile object has been intercepted and destroyed.” – The green and pink giant standing at the center of the cavernous circular room on a raised platform. Six yellow fured beings of much smaller size crouched in a position of submission before the being their faces buried in bowl like indentations in the floor. TheTomradi thundered.”Weapon slave report the destruction of that sphere.” The yellow furred being had already made peace with the Slave gods as he was certain he would not survive the answer he was about to give.”The Prakadu has been intercepted and destroyed.” Instead of the Weapon Slave, the Tomradi burned the knowledge slave. A new yellow being crawled through the disipating atomic ashes of his predecessor and burried his face in the head hole. “Speak why this is possible. It was reported that these seven specks correspond to a known species of weak dwarfs.” “The identification was made comparing these ships with ships that passed through Gart gate 55,000 periods ago. Visual comparison resulted in a 98 percent match.” “Visual comparison! It appears they have improved their technology over these periods. Why has feeler analysis not been completed?” “Our feelers do not penetrate past their barriers. Their barriers appear equal to ours.” It was the word equal that doomed him. The third knowledge slave crawled in to take the empty place. “Nothing is equal to Tomradi. Destroy two of these who raised my anger. So they know Tomradi might. The weapon slave send twenty Prakadu simultaneous. Enough to utterly destroy anything.” A mighty jolt made the Tomradi stumble and almost fall of his pedestal. “The others have sent something through the launch portals. Substantial damage to weapon release systems, and propulsion system. Repair measures have commenced.” The Ship system Slave reported. “All but one Prakadu has been intercepted. The remaining has hit its target.” Never had he been thrown of his feet. In his anger he forgot to burn anyone.”The target is destroyed?” This time he formulated it as a question. “No, it appears its energy barrier was damaged, but it is retuning to strength.” “Use the thought bolt!” “Their energy barriers are opaque to thought effects. A thought bolt will be uneffective.” It was concievable that these dwarfs made some technological advances, but not even five times the period time could not explain such a jump in technological advance. The Tomradi discs had been invincible and no civilization with the exception the Avondur could ever damage one. There was one possibility, these dwarfs have found what the Old had left behind. But this must not be! It was for the Tomradi alone. The Tomradi heard a strange sound.”Speak Slave what nature of sound is this?” “We are invaded, micro size mechanisms like our repair manipulators, but these are different. They are multiplying and devouring matter.” “Invaded? “ The concept of the word just begun to begun to sink in.”How can this be?Our barriers are intact, are they not?” It appears the others have used our weapon portals to bypass our barriers. The knowledge slaves who knew best about these things had not yet shared his knowledge with the pool.” “Then send for him!” “He had the honor to be the focus of your rightgeous punishment.” He always lamented the fact that the slaves did not share the result of their investigations right away. He would demand with the others that this is to be addressed as soon as possible. As he was thinking this, the sudden realization that he might not return to the others. “Can you stop these mechanics?” “We are trying to repurpose our repair manipulators.” – Captain Bebody had his fists stemmed against his hips.”Those Seenian battle nanites are scarier than Translocator bombs.” The Seenian robot who had been found with five hundred others deactivated at the Downward depot turned his head.”Technically those are not Seenian, Sir. They are a joint development of Lt. Suit and Lt.Commander Circuit. They are only based on the Lytor nanite and have been altered with terran battle nanites as pattern. The resulting SII-Nano Legionair is quite superior to Seenian tech, and the deployment via translocator has been pioneered by the tactical officer of the USS Tigershark.” Bebody was quite proud that the First Merchant was part of the most famous crew. “One day I hope they declassify the entire log book.” The robot said.”Lt. Suit sent me a message, that he was off to yet another tour with the Tigershark, just before we left. He did not say what they were going to do, but he expected it to be the last mission. Maybe command will then consider to declassify some their exploits. I would not be here without them.” During the first Inventory survey conducted by Union Xenotech specialists 500 Tytor deactivated Seenian Battle Robotswere found because the Seenians had experimented with true sentience during the last years of the war. The experiment was considered a falure because the sentient robots did not accept the obedience programs and demanded to be considered equal to the Seenians and receive ranks and all the considerations Seenians received. The Tytor program was terminated and the unruly robots deactivated , stored and scheduled for recycling. One of the robots was activated and when it learned that the Union made no difference between sentient machines and biological beings, the machine activated them all. No longer called robots, but their own society of Sentmacs the Seenian machines applied for Union membership. Lt. Tytor Sixteen had most of his weapons removed and replaced with scientific sensors and equipment, but he could still go toe to toe with a Cerberus IX. Tytor loved the fact that he did not have to be a battle robot but could be anything he wanted to be. Bebody patted the slick metal shoulder of his Science officer.”Then we all have a reason to be thankful to them. How about your swarming terror,what is the status?” “Their main objective is to disable shields and weapons and from the power distribution scans we are receiving we should have a shield less adversary in 3.56 minutes.” His OPS officer said. “And then?” “WWSD.” “Probably stomp ahead of a platoon Marines onto the bridge of that loud mouth, but I strongly advise that you don't. Stahl was born into a Quasimodo, you are not. Besides I don't think boarding action is anywhere in the First Contact manual. “It says however that a Captain is authorized to use all means available to respond to aggression and use strong arguments to avoid any misunderstandings or escalation of conflict.” “You are not a Golden, Captain. You're a disguised Terran.” “Well thank, you, but serious now. We got to something with them.We can't have Lt.Sixteen's nanites take the whole thing appart.” The usually very silent XO said.”Why not?” – The Tomradi were quite capable of feeling emotions, but fear and humiliation had been completely alien to them. This one however had learned very fast. The Aliens had come aboard and were on their way to the Worship room. He had placed his brain in his most frightening and strongest body. This body was a living battle armor designed to spread fear and induce awe. The legendary Tomradi of the Center used them to fight and force the will and rule of Tomradi over many galaxies. The last Tomradi of the Center has been here so long ago, no one really remembered when. He was a Tomradi as well of course, but the twenty thousand left behind to seek and collect had somehow changed, became less motivated. The species of this galaxy had nothing to oppose the Tomradi with and existed only to provide and serve. He braced himself and took compfort that his battle body was invincible and of the same kind the Tomradi of the Center used. The heavy, very thick door leading to into the round worship and command center crumbled as if it was made of paper. Four small beings with bronze colored skin, wearing some kind of armor followed by a dozen beings, none was alike. There was a tall being with a mirror plate before his face. An eight legged thing with a black body full of hair. Another was shrouded in a black garment. Behind them a giant with four arms, that made him feel small despite his battle body. There was a robot with them, two small furry beings similar but not the same. Two bipedal beings one with pink and one with blue skin, but the most terrifying life form he had seen, could barely squeeze through the door frame. It was on Fire and had leathery wings . The Tomradi of the Center scoured the heavens to collect sentient life but he had never seen such a diverse group. The group was lead by one of the small bronze skinned beings and it said.”I am Captain Bebody, and with me are officers and captains of our expedition. We are representing the United Stars of the Galaxies and as I stated before we have no hostile intentions,that we are quite capable of defending ourselves has been demonstrated, should you not be convinced, I was assured we can render this ship to dust. My fellow captains and officers suggested this direct approach to see if an alternative way could be discussed. I agreed to this but we came a very long way to find lost members of our tribe and your previous statement convinces me you greeted them, the same way. So quite frankly I want to know if there are any survivors.” “I am Tomradi , we are the new Lords of the Universe. Since no lesser beings like you could possibly achieve such levels of development, you must have found what the Old have left behind for us. Surrender all your knowledge about the Old, and subcmb to Tomradi rule and you will experience mercy.” Captain Bebody spread his arms.”You are not related to the Kermac by any chance?” The black shrouded being said.”He is not, but behavior and mental response pattern indicates similar philosophies.” “Thank you Captain Narth.” To the alien he said.”Last chance for giving dialog a chance. I am member of a peaceful species but my patience has limits.” “Everyone that comes through the gate is asked the same question. Category:Fragments Category:File Depository